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Published: February 1st 2010
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We arrived in Montevideo after over 24 hours of buses and walking from Peurto Iguazu in Argentina. We immediately realised the price was much higher than anywhere else we had been to date. We asked the man in the tourist office at the bus station how much the cheapest hostel was and he said 16 dollars per person. Wow, thats a lot we thought, coming from Bolivia where that would by you food, accomodation and even a night out!!
We jumped on a bus to centro and headed for the cheapest place in my book which was of course 16 dollars each but we had our own room and a bathroom too, the novelties!!!
We were so tired by the time we arrived we crashed to bed even without having dinner.
The next morningwe decided to have a good walk around the city. The city itself is beautiful. It seems to have a huge European past. I was darker than half the locals. The buildings look like something you would find in Spain and the prices match. We tried to keep it simple and eat cheap but was still really nice. We found a market near the port which held bucket
loads of Parilla (BBQ) which looked amazing so we said we would head back there for dinner. The afternoon was spent wandering the streets snapping the camera and taking it easy.
That night we were all ready for our Parilla and arrived at the market to find it shut. We then had to eat at one of the fancy restaurants next door where we found out after they charge a cover charge. After a lengthy argument with the staff as they dont advertise this charge we left without leaving any tip. It was then we were walking up some streets that before had been buzzing that we noticed this area didnt really look the best.
We were headed directly towards four lads of around 17 years of age. They looked fairly dirty but not too threatening as we looked a lot fitter than them. We all turned to another street and one of the guys came to me asking me the time. He didnt look the friendliest so I just told him quickly and then he asked for money. I told him to leave but as I was getting rid of him one of the others had tried to rip
our camera from Annes neck. All I heard was Anne shouting at him so turned around and started to run up to them. As I started Anne held tight to the camera pulling it back off the scumbag and and then they threw handfulls of gravel at us so we wouldnt chase them. Luckily Anne was not hurt and held her own so we still have everything!!
The next day we jumped on a bus to Colonial Del Sacremto which is 3 hours east of Montevideo on the coast. This is a lovely little Colonial town with some nice beaches. We found a campsite here so set up camp and explored the cobble streets of Colonial. It is easy to see the European legacy here and reminds me of walking around the small streets in the town on the Canarie Islands. That night they had a carnival in the streets which was pretty wild and all the people from the neighbouring towns filled the place. We only stayed the one night here and the next morning we met a guy from Alaska named Richard. He seemed fairly new to the backpacking game so we took him under our wing and
he came with us to the small town of Carmelo.
The actual town in Carmelo is nothing to boast about but where the campsite is is where the action goes down. It was a small stretch of beach filled with restaurants and bars. There was a really nice buzz around the area with people playing Volley ball and football late into the night. We had a few beers on the beach a retreated to our tent for a good nights sleep.
The following morning we had to get our boat to Buenos Aires in Argentina. We would be picking up our 8th stamp on this trip for Argentina. We walked with our bags through the dead heat to arrive at the port and wait to venture back to Argentina!!!
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